1523: Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos, the first Lutheran martyrs
July 1st, 2020 Headsman
Christian reformer Martin Luther composed his hymn “Ein neues Lied wir heben an” (literally “A new song we raise” but commonly titled in English “Flung to the Heedless Winds”) in response to a major milestone for his movement: the first evangelicals executed for the faith, namely defrocked Augustinian monks Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos (or Voes), who were burned on July 1, 1523 in Brussels. “How welcome must that fire have been which hurried them from this sinful life to eternal life yonder,” Luther wrote in a missive to the Low Countries. But it wasn’t that welcome: their entire Antwerp monastery had been suppressed as a heretical nest with all its denizens save these two fleeing the stake, many by way of recantation. Nevertheless, Jan and Hendrik would not be the last of the former Antwerp Augustinians to achieve the martyr’s crown and Luther’s tribute.
On this day..
- 1896: The Rufus Buck Gang, heaven-dream't - 2019
- 1681: Archbishop Oliver Plunkett, the last Catholic martyr in Great Britain - 2018
- 1941: Francisco Escribano, for supplying the Spanish Maquis - 2017
- 1555: John Bradford, in the grace of God - 2016
- 1819: Neyonibe and Naugechek - 2015
- 1413: Pierre des Essarts - 2014
- 1943: Willem Arondeus, gay resistance fighter - 2013
- 2010: Michael Perry, Herzog subject - 2012
- 1569: Three Huguenot Parisians - 2011
- 1346: Simon Pouillet - 2010
- 1947: The avatar of Doctor Wonder - 2009
- 1766: Jean-François de la Barre, freethinker martyr - 2008
Entry Filed under: 16th Century,Arts and Literature,Belgium,Burned,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Execution,God,Habsburg Realm,Heresy,History,Martyrs,Milestones,Netherlands,Power,Public Executions,Revolutionaries
Tags: 1520s, 1523, brussels, hendrik vos, hymns, jan van essen, july 1, martin luther, Protestant Reformation
